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Bill Waterton
| death_date = | placeofburial = | birth_place =Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | death_place =Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada | birth_name = William Arthur Waterton | allegiance =United Kingdom | branch =Royal Air Force | serviceyears = 1939-1946 | rank =Squadron Leader | servicenumber = 42288 | unit = 242 Sqdn AFDU | commands = | battles = | awards =George Medal Air Force Cross | laterwork =Test Pilot Aviation correspondent }} Squadron Leader Bill Waterton GM AFC* (18 March 1916 – 17 April 2006) was a Canadian test pilot and correspondent for the Daily Express. He was awarded the George Medal for saving the flight data when he landed at great risk the prototype Gloster Javelin after it lost its controls during a test flight."From All Quarters: George Medal for Bill Waterton." Flight, 1 August 1952. Early years Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1916, W. A. Waterton was brought up in Camrose, Alberta. His family originally came from north Sydenham Township and settled in Owen Sound, Ontario. He was interested in flying from an early age.Armitage, Andrew. "Ace test pilot was once a British celebrity and household name." Owen Sound Library, (article first appeared in the (Owen Sound) The Sun Times, 11 February 2011). Retrieved 12 March 2011. Aviation career Second World War Entering the Royal Military College of Canada in 1935, after two years at the school, where he was a champion middleweight boxer, Waterton had applied without success to the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and Canadian Army in 1938."Top Fifteen: Sqn Ldr William Arthur “Bill” Waterton GM AFC*." National Cold War Exhibition (RAF Museum). Retrieved 12 March 2011. Ultimately, he was accepted on a short service commission for the Royal Air Force (RAF) which was expanding rapidly in expectation of war. In Britain, he took flying lessons and joined the RAF on 10 June 1939. He was first posted to No. 242 Squadron RAF and flew Hawker Hurricanes from Biggin Hill and Manston during the Battle of France. In operations over Dunkirk on 25 May 1940, he crashed near Dover and suffered severe head injuries. When Waterton returned to flying duties, he was sent to No. 6 Operational Training Unit. His skills as an instructor were recognised and he was made a flying instructor, training hundreds of pilots for over two years in both the UK and Canada.Ralph 2005, p. 72. Test flying After a stint with Transatlantic Ferry Command in 1943, and initially posted to No. 124 Squadron in September 1943, he was transferred to 1409 (Meteorological) Flight. In 1944, Waterton applied to the Air Fighting Development Unit based at Wittering in Lincolnshire which assessed captured enemy aircraft by flying them in mock combat against the greatest variety of Allied aircraft. During this period, he amassed a great deal of test flying in devising tactics for Fighter Command based on the actual performance of aircraft in "real life" conditions.Corbett, Neil. "S/Ldr William 'Bill' A. Waterton GM AFC 1916-2006." Test & Research Pilots, Flight Test Engineers, 19 December 2007. Retrieved 12 March 2011. Along with other colleagues, Waterton was sent to No. 5 Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) at Hanworth, Middlesex.Hamilton-Paterson 2010, p. 38. Postwar After the war when Waterton was at the Central Fighter Establishment, he was selected for the High Speed Flight, preparing for an attempt at the world airspeed record with the RAF's first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor. He achieved an average speed of 614 mph with Meteor IV EE550, only two mph less than that of the team leader E. M. Donaldson who established a new record with EE549 on 7 September 1946."A tentative record." Flight, 12 September 1946. ]] Gloster Aircraft Company Following the high speed flights, Waterton joined the Gloster Aircraft Company in September 1946 as a development test pilot.James 1987, p. 423. He became the company's Chief Test Pilot, primarily in charge of experimental fight testing their new designs, the Meteor family, the experimental Gloster E.1/44, and the delta-wing Gloster GA.5 which entered service as the Gloster Javelin. He also was involved in acceptance test flying on production aircraft.Rossiter 2002, pp. 61–62. On 6 February 1948, Waterton set the world 100 kilometres closed circuit air speed record flying a Gloster Meteor IV at 524.95 mph, although his record was broken a few weeks later by Mike Lithgow in a Supermarine Attacker."News in Brief: Air Speed Record." The Times, 12 March 1948, Issue 51018, p. 2, Column B. In 1950, Waterton was loaned to Avro Canada for the test flights of the Avro CF-100 Canuck because as a Canadian by birth, and as an experienced test pilot, it was considered a public relations triumph for the parent Hawker Siddeley Group.Rossiter 2002, p. 63. On 19 January 1950, he piloted the CF-100 prototype on its maiden flight, and stayed on as the aircraft proceeded through its company development trials and throughout a United States Air Force "fly-off" competition in May 1950.Waterton 1958, pp. 171–172. On his return to Gloster in 1951, Waterton found that he was continually at odds with management and even though he continued test flying, gave his superiors an ultimatum to address deficiencies in the Javelin fighter, that ended with his discharge in 1954.Waterton 1958, pp. 225–226. Aviation correspondent Following his dismissal from Gloster, Waterton became an aviation correspondent for the Daily Express; his columns fearlessly criticising British aviation and its aircraft. In 1955, he collaborated with Daily Express sub-editor Timothy Hewat on a book covering the de Havilland Comet crashes: The Comet Riddle.Hamilton-Paterson 2010, pp. 168–169. The following year, Waterton published his autobiography The Quick and the Dead in which he accused the British aviation industry of being badly run, aiming for a quick profit and lagging behind the Soviet and US industry. Due to advertiser pressure, Waterton was fired by the Daily Express, and his departure was covered on their own front page: "We Sacked Waterton - and Why".Hamilton-Paterson 2010, pp. 174–175. Later years Thereafter, Waterton moved back to Canada to his hometown of Owen Sound, Ontario and largely led a life out of the public eye. During his later years, he continued to fly as an instructor and taught Eddie Sargent, the colourful and popular Owen Sound mayor, member of provincial parliament, newspaper publisher, promoter and record-holding swimmer, to fly.Dunn, Scott. "Sargent bay swim set for Sunday." (Owen Sound) The Sun Times, 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2011. Waterton died in 2006, and was buried in Oxenden cemetery; his final wish was to be buried with water close by, and even closer is the end of the runway of the nearby Wiarton Airport, Wiarton, Ontario. Honours and awards *1 January 1943 - Flight Lieutenant William Arthur Waterton (RAF 42288), Royal Air Force is awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) *12 June 1947 - Acting Squadron Leader William Arthur Waterton AFC (42288) RAFO is awarded a bar to his Air Force Cross (AFC) * 25 July 1952 - William Arthur Waterton AFC, Chief Test Pilot, Gloster Aircraft Company is awarded the George Medal: }} In 2003, Waterton was made an associate member of the Empire Test Pilots' School Association. Although covering a broad overview of the aerospace industry in the 1950s and 1960s, James Hamilton-Paterson exhaustively profiled Waterton's career in the recent, Empire of the Clouds: When Britain's Aircraft Ruled the World (2010).Rennell, Tony. "They died so you could fly off on holiday: The forgotten British jet test pilots who revolutionised flight." Daily Mail, 25 September 2010. Retrieved 12 March 2011. References ;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * Halliday, Hugh. The Tumbling Sky. Stittsville, Ontario, Canada: Canada's Wings, 1978. ISBN 0-920002-03-X. * Hamilton-Paterson, James. Empire of the Clouds: When Britain's Aircraft Ruled the World. London: Faber & Faber, 2010. ISBN 978-0-571-24794-3. * James, Derek N. Gloster Aircraft since 1917. London: Putnam, 1987. ISBN 0-85177-807-0. * Jones, Barry. Gloster Meteor. Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire, United Kingdom: The Crowood Press Ltd., 1998. ISBN 1-86126-162-4. * Mason, Francis K. The British Fighter Since 1912. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. 1992. ISBN 1-55750-082-7. * Ralph, Wayne. Aces, Warriors and Wingmen: The Firsthand Accounts of Canada's Fighter Pilots in the Second World War. Toronto: Wiley, 2005. ISBN 0-470-83590-7. * Rossiter, Sean. The Chosen Ones: Canada's Test Pilots in Action. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2002. ISBN 1-55054-930-8. * Shacklady, Edward. The Gloster Meteor. London: Macdonald & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 1962. * Waterton, Bill. The Quick and the Dead. London: Frederick Mueller, 1958. * Waterton, Bill and Tim Hewat. The Comet Riddle. London: Frederick Mueller, 1955. * Zuk, Bill. The Avro Arrow Story: The Revolutionary Airplane and its Courageous Test Pilots. Calgary: Altitude Publishing, 2005. ISBN 1-55153-978-0. External links *Around the sticks: article on participation in record speed attempt *[http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1956/1956%20-%201033.html Flight reporting Gloster's reaction to Waterton's autobiography] *Time magazine reporting his autobiography Category:1916 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Recipients of the George Medal Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Category:Test pilots